As the employment of bank cards, such as credit cards, has spread, retail sales transactions involving the use of credit cards have become quite common. Concurrently, however, in consonance with the growing popularity of credit card use, there has been a corresponding increase in such criminal activities as the counterfeiting of credit cards, the theft and the illegal use of credit cards by unauthorized persons, and the illegal assessment of charges by shops, so that a need exists for means by which to improve the safety of transactions handled by settlement systems. Recently, as a countermeasure to prevent credit card forgery, an IC credit card has been introduced.
A description will now be given of a settlement system for which conventional credit cards, to include IC credit cards, are used.
As is disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. Hei 3-32100, for transactions involving the use of bank cards, such as credit cards, many settlement systems have been proposed and are now employed that permit the exchange of authorization and credit clearance data by terminals at shops and at control centers.
In FIG. 42 is shown the general structure of such a conventional settlement system.
In FIG. 42, a credit settlement terminal 4201 is installed at a shop for the performance of various credit transactions. The credit settlement terminal 4201 is connected to a remote settlement system 4202 via a telephone line 4204, a public network 4203, and a communication line 4205. The credit settlement terminal 4201 includes a card reader for reading information stored on a credit card 4200, a modem for connecting to the public network 4203, and a printer for printing a statement of accounts.
The settlement system 4202 is an information processing system for handling credit settlement or transactions, and for managing manage consumer credit information and account information under the terms of credit service contracts entered into by consumers.
On credit cards bearing the signatures of card holders, ID information is electronically recorded that corresponds to raised impressions of the names of the card holders and their assigned account numbers. The credit cards 4200 that are currently being used in this manner are magnetic credit cards and IC credit cards, the differences between them being that they require different external interfaces and that card readers used for reading their internally stored data must be those that correspond to the specific cards that are employed. Incidentally, in addition to the aforementioned ID data, on some types of credit cards various other personal data items can be stored.
The thus structured settlement system performs credit transactions using the following process.
First, when requesting the initiation of a credit transaction, a consumer hands a credit card 4200 to a shop clerk. The shop clerk then uses the card reader of the credit settlement terminal 4201 to read the credit card 4200, and proceeds to process the credit transaction.
When the card reader has read the ID data from the credit card 4200, the settlement terminal 4201 transmits to the settlement system 4202, via a modem connected to a data communication network, a message that includes the ID data, and a request for credit reference data and for the initiation of a credit transaction. Thereafter, the settlement system 4202 employs the ID data, and price data, which is also included in the message, to perform a credit reference process and other procedures required for the credit transaction, and then transmits a transaction completion message to the credit settlement terminal 4201. Upon receiving this message, the credit settlement terminal 4201 uses the printer to prepare a statement of account.
Finally, the shop clerk asks the consumer to sign the statement of account and confirms the consumer's signature by comparing it with the signature on the credit card 4200, and completes the credit transaction by returning the credit card 4200 to the customer with a copy of the statement of account.
When such a conventional settlement system is employed, however, since the credit card 4200 is physically transferred to the shop clerk and possession of the credit card 4200 number is thus acquired by the shop, the possibility exists that the number could be illegally used by the shop.
In addition, since according to the conventional credit system the shop is the dominant party in the credit process, in the course of a credit transaction the shop could cheat the consumer by charging a higher than actual price.
Furthermore, since according to the conventional settlement system a credit card 4200 is loaded directly into a credit settlement terminal that is installed in a shop and is thus susceptible to tampering by the shop, the shop could alter data recorded on the card, or illegally read personal data, other than ID data, stored on the card.
And then, with the conventional settlement system, a consumer is inconvenienced by having to carry a large number of credit cards, one for each credit service for which a contract has been entered into with a credit company.
Moreover, since with the conventional settlement system a physical card, i.e., a credit card, must be used as an authentication means, if a consumer desires to cancel a transaction for which the credit card was used, he or she must return to the location at which that transaction was concluded.
Also, with a conventional settlement system an account statement must be printed out on paper, and the time required for the printing constitutes an interruption that detracts from the efficiency with which the system handles a sale. Further, since a credit settlement terminal must be equipped with a printer, this adversely affects efforts to reduce the size and the cost of a credit settlement terminal.
In addition, since according to a conventional settlement system the signature of a consumer is required on an account statement, the time required for a clerk to request that a consumer sign a statement and for the consumer to actually sign it occupies the major portion of the credit transaction time, and further detracts from the efficiency of such a sale.
To resolve the above problems encountered with a conventional settlement system, one objective of the present invention is to provide transaction means for which superior safety and convenience are ensured.